The presentation titled “Safe drugs for bad bugs – EV-035, a new topoisomerase inhibitor”, will provide an overview of preclinical data generated to date. EV-035 is a novel bacterial type II topoisomerase inhibitor, belonging to the chemical class of 2-pyridones. EV-035 shows excellent broad-spectrum activity, including pathogens such as Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter and Haemophilus. Most importantly, EV-035 shows activity not only on drug-sensitive strains, but also on those resistant to marketed antibiotics (including quinolones) and has a very low propensity of developing new resistance.

EV-035 has a very favourable in vitro safety profile and its pharmacokinetic properties allow for intravenous as well as oral dosing. In preclinical infection models, EV-035 shows oral efficacy against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. The spectrum of EV-035 also extends to potential biothreat agents such as Burkholderia pseudomallei, Burkholderia mallei, Yersinia pestis, Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, and Brucella abortus, work which was to date part-funded by the US Department of Defense. Apart from potential use in biodefense, Evolva owns all rights to EV-035 and has patent applications covering this portfolio.

Neil Goldsmith, CEO of Evolva commented, “We are excited about presenting our novel antibiotic EV-035 for the first time to the medical and scientific community. Multidrug resistant superbugs have brought us on the verge of a healthcare crisis. Thousands die each year due to inadequate treatment of bacterial infections, acquired in the hospital or the community. Rising bacterial resistance is even jeopardising the stunning progress made in medical practise in the past decades. There is clearly a pressing, unmet medical need to which we hope to contribute with our EV-035 2-pyridone.”

About Evolva Holding SA

Evolva’s mission is to discover and provide innovative, sustainable ingredients for health, nutrition and wellness. Evolva uses biosynthetic and evolutionary technologies to create and optimise small molecule compounds and their production routes. Our approach differs from that of the mainstream in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. We are active in pharma (infectious disease and complications of diabetes) as well as in consumer healthcare and
nutrition (food ingredients, personal care and crop protection). In both areas we have partnered projects as well as proprietary programmes.

This press release contains specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like believe, assume, expect or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking
statements or to adapt them to future events or developments.